Genna – Christmas at Lalibela – Weihnachten in Lalibela

Genna (or Lidet) is the Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas that is celebrated on January 7th, according to the Julian calendar used by the Ethiopians. In leap years, the celebration is shifted for one day. But not in Lalibela where Genna has a special significance. Legend has it that king Lalibela had been born on the same […]

Lalibela – Jerusalem in Africa – Jerusalem in Afrika

It was the village of Roha on an altitude of 2.630 m in the remote Lasta highland at the foot of 4.190 m high Mount Abune Yosef, that king Lalibela had chosen after a change of power at the end of the Aksumite rule to have his nowadays world famous rock-hewn churches being built. The […]

Aksum

Aksum is located at 2.130 m above sea level in the far north of Ethiopia near the border to Eritrea, and it is the oldest continuously inhabited place south of the Sahara Desert with today around 60.000 inhabitants. That the town has been the capital of the empire of Queen Sheba as early as 1.000 […]

Gondar – City of palaces – Die Stadt der Paläste

The important imperial city of the 17th and the 18th centuries, Gondar, is a nice mixture of a modern-day town and its historic remains, among them the most famous palace area Gemp. Today’s Gondar has 600.000+ inhabitants and is located at 2.300 m in altitude near the Simien mountains and northeast of Lake Tana. Because […]